The Week In Transgenderism 7/2/12

Nong

One of the male designers who competed on Season 8 of Project Runway (UK) has quietly transitioned and is now living as a woman. Andy South is now Nong Ariyaphon Southiphong. Get the details on how she redesigned herself in the Mail Online.

In Toronto, Canada TGs say the police are not treating them with respect and may even be targeting them for harassment. This accusation comes just weeks after Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to to legally protect the rights of transgendered people. Is it harassment or a function of more TGs on the streets? Get the story from the CBC website.

The police in Toronto gave Chaz Bono no problems when he was there last week to shoot an episode of the Canadian television show Degrassi. Bono plays a talent show judge who offers advice and support to the show’s TG teen character, Adam. Read the particulars at starpulse.com.

While the Toronto police were no trouble the Florida Family Association, apparently a group of small minded, so-called Christians who fight against LGBT characters being shown on television, have vowed to orchestrate an ad boycott of the Bono episode of Degrassi. I bet the producers are really concerned. Not! Read about it in On Top Magazine.

Other Christians — transgender Episcopalians and their allies — are preparing to demand that their church change it’s canons regarding “gender identity and expression.” At this time those terms are exluded from their official inclusion statement. Get the ins and outs of the fight from religiondispatches.org.

Prom Queen

It’s not all bad news from Canada. A young transgendered high school student in Canada, who has been afraid to leave her house at times, not only made it to her schools prom, she was elected prom queen. It’s an example of how far TGs have come but the story also tells us what still needs to change. Get the details from the CBC.

A transgendered man’s lack of sexual experience contributed to his ouster from The Glee Project. Having been a man for only a year he hadn’t had enough experience in the area’s of sex and romance to be able to compete in the “sexuality” themed episode that ran last Tuesday. Read all about it in the Sun Sentinel.

Everyone loves a winner! Till someone starts hatin’ on ‘em. That seems to be the case with RuPauls’ Drag Race winner Sharon Needles. Her hometown, Pittsburgh, Pa., just gave her an official Sharon Needles Day and she’s been busy spreading her positive message about gay people far and wide. In the middle of it all come accusations that Needles is a racist and bigot. Needles maintains that she’s an artist. Read the details in The GA Voice and decide if Needles is in the wrong.

Cassandra

An Atlanta drag performer was murdered last week during a botched robbery attempt at her apartment. Noxy Cassandra was a regular performer in Atlanta clubs. The punk who killed he is also implicated in the robbery of a transgender sex worker. Get the disgusting details from ProjectQAtlanta.com.

Our Meet The Tranagendered Person article comes to us from Lafayette, Indiana. Christina Nicole Batie is the subject and she tells her story to a newspaper, the Lansing State Journal. See how tough it can be to transition in Lafayette. The article is on lansingstatejournal.com.

Tranimal

Drag is no longer shocking in the artsy, gay nightlife scene. We knew it was coming as drag got more and more over the top — so far over that the top was somewhere miles below the 10 inch platform shoes. What’s the next step for the club kid who wants to make a scene on the scene? Being a tranimal. Most of their costume creations don’t look so much like animals as they do mutants whose genes have been damaged beyond repair. Check them out at vice.com.

The United Kingdom has been going out of its way to respect transgendered people. Schools there have been encouraged to validate transgender behavior indulged in by students as young as 4. One psychiatrist objects, saying that children so young just enjoy trying on many roles and their dressing up is the same as imitating a bird or pretending to be a cowboy. Read his thesis and see what the readers of OneNewsNow.com think.

What would you say to a law that, at the Federal level, made sure that transgendered people could not be discriminated against by health insurance companies because they  are TG? And the law would make it possible for LGBT young adults to get medical coverage. How cool would that be? Well it’s all part of the Affordable Care Act, or as it was named by it’s detractors, Obamacare. Find out what Obamacare does for you and the GLB people, too, at Think Progress.

Best Dressed Contest

The U.K. has a host of traditions built up around its horse racing industry. One of those traditions is ladies attending in large, striking hats. In Ireland at the Galway track a local drag queen has taken her Kate Middleton impression into the Best Dressed Lady competition — and come in second. She’s the first drag queen to enter the contest and she now plans to enter them all around the country. Read about what she wore and what she won in the Galway News.

While Ireland has best dressed contests for ladies it takes a country like New Zealand to hold an event that features activities that range from a sheep race to a drag (as in drag queen) race. Once a year for a local festival business leaders in Queenstown (Queenstown? Hummm…) get into their hottest drag outfits and compete in an obstacle race. Read about the fun down under in Stuff.

TWITs

Portland is supposed to be pretty cool and laid back. Portland, Washington, that is. Portland, Oregon is the home of our first TWIT Award winner. Will Reginald McGhee please step up to the podium to accept his award? Don’t bring your belt, McGhee. That’s the weapon he used, swinging it around so he could hit his victims with the buckle, when he attacked two transgender women he was passing on the street. He also shouted gay slurs. The ladies pepper sprayed him. For the rest of the story visit KATU.com.

TWIT Award number two goes to Clyde Yarbrough Junior. Clyde is a crossdresser from Calhoun Country, Alabama. Clyde also likes his liquor. He walked into a store wearing a halter top and skirt, picked up a bottle of booze and started chugging it. He eventually paid for the booze but not before he had taken it “off-premise” and attracted the attention of Sheriff Coltrane . . . ah, the police. And that lead to a good old fashioned car chase. Of which there is video. Read about it and see it at WLTZ.com. Take the booze home next time, Clyde.

TWIT Award number three is going to a creep who told a store clerk he was a crossdresser and asked her to pick out some clothes for him to try on. When the clerk brought the items to the dressing room door the “crossdresser” opened the door, pulled up his dress and exposed himself to her. He is also reported to be an alcoholic. Whatever dude. Please don’t use crossdressing as a cover for your perversion. You have been TWITted. The story is in The Spec.com.

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Category: Transgender Community News